


an old song

by alatarmaia4



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-115, also included: assorted quarter elves, also post-Dalen's Closet, and an OC or two for flavor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 20:03:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21214286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alatarmaia4/pseuds/alatarmaia4
Summary: Vesper knows that Vasselheim is a really important old city, and her parents know a bunch of important people there, not just Aunt Pike. But she doesn't really care about that. Her Mama and Papa are lord and lady - obviously all their friends are important. All Vesper's interested in - okay, alittleexcited about - is being in a city that's not Whitestone for the first time ever.





	an old song

**Author's Note:**

  * For [writingfromthevoid (astrifer0us)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrifer0us/gifts).

> I feel a bit like I wrote this in a rush, but I'm very happy with how it turned out! And just in time for me to swap over to my NaNo project as well...
> 
> Enjoy!

For the first time ever they weren’t going to spend all winter cozy inside the castle, and Vesper wanted to know why.

“We’ve been invited,” said Papa when she asked, scooping her up to sit on his lap. “And we didn’t visit your Aunt Pike in the temple there when we promised last summer, so we’re going to go see her now.”

Vesper reached forward to run her fingers over the thick blob of wax that was still stuck on the end of the envelope. Papa had left it on his desk with the letter folded up inside. It was blue and stamped with an oval that had a long feather in the middle.

“You get this letter  _ every  _ year and you never did anything about it before,” Vesper pointed out. Last year her Papa had found it, made a face, and never said anything about it. Vesper never saw it again, either, and she was convinced it had been thrown in the fireplace as soon as nobody was looking. She didn’t know why things were different  _ this  _ year, when Papa constantly talked about how busy he was building things and inventing things and making clockwork that nobody had ever thought of before. 

“...This year is different.”

So they all had to dress nicely and put on their warmest winter clothes and cloaks. Baby Madeline, who wasn’t even a year old, became a bundle of wool with a face hidden somewhere inside, tied securely onto Mama’s back like a backpack. 

“Darling, she does  _ not  _ need another hat,” Mama said while Aunt Cassandra was helping Vesper fasten her cloak. She’d already put on mittens and couldn’t get a grip on the clasp.

“Vasselheim is practically arctic,” Papa said defensively, but when Vesper craned her neck to look he was putting the extra hat on Freddie instead, who was three and a half and the next smallest. Freddie was trying to grow his hair out like Mama, but it still wasn’t very long, and it stuck out from under the hat in little brown tufts. 

Vesper was happy because she got to wear her new cloak pin, the one from her birthday that was shaped like a V with tiny blue stones set at each tip of the letter and at the point. Her twin sister Ofelia had gotten one just like it, shaped like an O, except it wasn’t a perfect circle because there had to be a gap for the pin part to go through so it could be taken off. But other than that it was the same.

Aunt Keyleth met them in the courtyard, and cooed when she saw baby Madeline all bundled up. The three adults all talked for a little bit while Leo tried to pelt the rest of them with snowballs, even though he was only six and not very good at making them yet. Freddie got hit by one in the back and went running to Papa, and begged to be picked up so he would be safe. 

Papa did pick him up, but only to make sure everybody got through the tree-gate in time. Vesper held tight to Aunt Keyleth’s hand as they rushed through, and immediately stumbled into a snowdrift as tall as she was.

“Whoops! Careful there.” Aunt Keyleth picked her up and set her back on her feet. Vesper shook snow off her face and saw Freddie laughing at Leo, who had done the same thing. 

Vesper jumped up and down a few times, just because she was so full of energy she felt like she wanted to run everywhere. She’d seen Aunt Keyleth come through trees before, but she’d never done it  _ with  _ Vesper. Being inside something that was a living object and having it push her hundreds of miles away from home felt... _ weird. _ And exciting. Vesper almost couldn’t wait to go home, but she had to see Vasselheim first and find out what the big deal about it was once and for all. 

Vasselheim was huge, so huge Vesper was sure a hundred Whitestones could have fit inside it. The streets were really wide, so that wagons could go down them and leave room for other wagons going the other way. Plus people! There were people everywhere of all kinds like dwarves and dragonborn, selling little bread rolls or sweets, or paper lanterns and masks decorated with paint and tassels. 

“Mamaaaaaaaaaaa,” Ofelia whined when they passed the fifth mask stall, tugging desperately at Mama’s hand.

“After,” Mama said, for the fifth time. “We have to go be formal at people first. Once that’s done you can pick out  _ one  _ and then we’ll go say hello to your aunt Pike.”

“I thought we were here to see Aunt Pike,” Leo said, frowning. He hadn’t wanted to hold anybody’s hand, but the crowds of Vasselheim made him press close to Papa.

“We are,” said Mama. “But we’re doing one little errand first.”

It was only a little hill, compared to the big mountain that Vesper knew from stories was where Aunt Pike’s temple was. At the top of it was a big building that shone like glass, with twisty spires like someone had built a big cone, and then a god had reached down and twisted it really hard. Out in front of it there was a big courtyard that was full of lantern light. When they got closer Vesper could see that there were lots of people in the courtyard too. They were going around to small squares where people had put little tables, or flowers, or little portraits of different kinds of people.

“Are you...?” Mama trailed off, turning to face Aunt Keyleth. Vesper felt Aunt Keyleth’s hand tighten around her own. 

“I’m staying out here,” Aunt Keyleth said firmly. “I can watch the kids for you. Let ‘em run around a little.” Leo brightened and immediately let go of Papa’s hand; Papa grabbed for his wrist before he could run off. 

“Are you sure? There’s a lot of people and it’s late out-”

“I’m still on Tal’dorei time, and so are you. I’ll be fine. I can even take Madeline, if you want.”

“I’m fine with her.” Mama put a hand over her shoulder to pat Madeline’s head. “We’ll be back in a little bit.”

Aunt Keyleth made them all stand in a circle and listen after Mama and Papa went inside the twisty building, and told them very firmly that they needed to be polite and not wander too far away. Then she picked up Freddie, who was complaining that he was tired again, and told them to ‘go do whatever’.

Vesper and Ofelia ran off immediately. All the little tables people were setting up were so pretty. Some had lots of portraits, like people were making art displays. Vesper stopped when she saw one that was painted, properly painted like it was of a lady who had sat for it. It was so pretty, so she stopped and said so.

“Thank you,” said the woman who was setting up the table. She was a half-orc and had her hair braided really elaborately, like Mama sometimes did for fancy events. “It’s of my grandmother. She had a brother who was an artist, who did this for her wedding.”

“Ooh!” Vesper peered closer at the portrait. Ofelia shuffled her feet in the snow behind her, drawing obscure lines in the mucky whiteness. It was a little mucky because so many people had walked over it already. “Is that her wife with her?”

“Yes, it is. Would you like to say hello?”

Vesper blinked at her. “Say hello?”

The woman sat back on her heels. She had big sturdy boots and didn’t seem to mind that her knees were getting wet. “Little girl, do you know what today is?”

Vesper screwed up her face. “No?” When the woman looked at Ofelia, Ofelia shook her head. 

“Tonight is the Night of Ascension. Do you know what that is?”

“The Raven Queen?” Ofelia offered tentatively. Vesper watched the half-orc woman closely, frustrated that she didn’t know if that was the right answer or not. But the woman nodded.

“It is a night we celebrate the Matron of Ravens,” the woman said. “Tonight is the anniversary of when She became a god, and so people say that tonight She remembers her roots and allows us mortals a peek at the beyond. Tonight we are given the chance to speak to loved ones who have passed on.”

That made sense why she’d never heard of it. Vesper didn’t know of anybody in her family who had passed on. 

“So if we say hello, your grandmother can say hello back?” Ofelia asked. 

“It doesn’t really work like that. They can listen, but they can’t come back. You have to look for little signs.”

“Like what?” Vesper demanded.

“Why don’t you say hello, and we can see what happens?”

Ofelia had crept a little closer, curiosity getting the better of her. “How?”

The woman gestured to the portrait and the little table, strewn with flowers. “Just say it. It’s as easy as speaking to anyone else.”

Vesper crouched down. She didn’t want to kneel like the woman because then she’d have snow all over her dress. “Um...good evening,” she offered, finding it weirdly hard to make eye contact with the portrait. Did she need to make eye contact? 

“Hi,” Ofelia said, staring up at the sky. 

The three of them sat in silence for a little bit. Vesper pulled her cloak closer around herself. It was really cold out. 

Across the courtyard, faintly, a jingle of bells rang out. Maybe they were put out on somebody else’s little table, but the woman smiled.

“That sounds like a happy response to me,” she said. “You see?”

Vesper wasn’t sure she did, not all the way. It was just out of her reach. But she nodded anyway.

It didn’t take very long at all for Mama and Papa to come back, and by that time Vesper and Ofelia had found Aunt Keyleth again and could pretend they’d never gone anywhere. 

“Mama!” Ofelia rushed up to hug Mama’s legs in excitement, making her stop walking hastily. “We talked to a ghost!”

“A ghost?” Mama looked confused. Maybe even a little spooked, Vesper thought. She and Papa didn't seem like they at all enjoyed whatever had happened inside the big glass building.  


“We met a woman who said people do that tonight!”

“Oh.” Mama smiled, finally. “I know what you mean. Did you have a good time with Aunt Keyleth, then?”

“Mm-hm.”

“So long as they don’t make talking to ghosts a habit,” Papa said under his breath. Vesper heard him even though she probably wasn’t supposed to. Mama put a hand on his shoulder just for a second.

“People keep staring at us,” Leo complained. “Can we go?”

“Sure, let’s go see your Aunt Pike.” Mama took Leo’s hand. “Can you walk a little farther tonight?”

“...Mm-hm.”

“That’s my boy. Come on, all of you. I bet Aunt Pike has something fun planned for tonight.”

Vesper looked over her shoulder as they walked back out of the courtyard. Mama and Papa hadn’t said anything about what they did in the big glassy building, or what the invitation was about at all. And Leo was right, people  _ were  _ looking, but Vesper thought they were mostly looking at Mama and Papa and Aunt Keyleth.

Aunt Keyleth made sense, because nobody except her wore a big antlered circlet. But Vesper didn’t get why her parents were so interesting. They were just regular adults. 

Maybe other adults were just weird. Vesper had a feeling once she was grown up, things would make more sense. For now, she decided to stop thinking about ghosts and glass buildings and staring, and hope that Aunt Pike had made pastries for them again. 

**Author's Note:**

> As a quick rundown: this family is a mixture of my own headcanons and established Vox Machina canon, so the de Rolo kids are as follows:
> 
> Vesper Elaina & Ofelia Julia (twins, eight years old)  
Leonhard "Leo" Tristran (six years old)  
Percival IV "Freddie" (three and a half)  
Madeline (babey)
> 
> Most of these are my own invention, but obviously Vesper is canon and Madeline was mentioned at a panel by Laura or Taliesin as a potential baby girl's name - or so I heard a looong time ago, close to when 115 had just aired.


End file.
